More „Decommunization“!
Dana Brezhnieva

Almost 25 years have passed since Ukraine gained its independence due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, as time goes by, the independence of Ukraine looks more and more like a formality. During this period, numerous events aimed at gaining real independence from Russia have occurred in the country. These include the Orange Revolution, the Euromaidan, and the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Nevertheless, it could be so that the most important issue for the country is internal, and it consists of its dependency on Soviet patterns of behaviour.

The evidence of that is the recent adoption of a number of decommunization laws by Ukrainian politicians. The law “On the condemnation of Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols” has called upon fiercest discussions about this legislative package. According to this law, the level of criminal penalties for the use of Soviet symbols can only be compared with similar data from South Korea, which disassociates itself from its northern neighbour in such a way, while Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, and other post-communist countries rank it mostly as administrative violation.

Of course, in the beginning it should be explained that the process of “people’s decommunization”, from “Leninopad”, the demolition of Lenin monuments, to carefully sealing “hammer and sickle” on murals in hospitals and recreation centres with the coat of arms of Ukraine, is happening in the country anyway. However, after the law came into force, it became legitimate to destroy unique mosaics also, for instance, the dismantling of the mosaic decoration of the Kyiv subway, which featured communist symbols. Nowadays, people tend to only see the manifestation of Soviet ideology in these objects, they forget that they are works of art and have authors.

In such circumstances, the process of decommunization is being conducted with methods that were used by the Bolsheviks, actually, when they destroyed monuments of imperial tsarist Russia. These are the same methods which ISIS uses breaking monuments with hammers and destroying museums, and which the whole world condemns them for. Perhaps, this kind of unequivocal “remembrance and recalling” of one’s own history causes a delay in development and makes building a “democratic” future, which has been proclaimed in the slogans of the Maidan, more complicated.

Bernhard Wolf’s project, based on an association reaction to crossing of logos and slogans from the daily routine of an individual, hit just in time. The artist intuitively found a simple and clear symbol, while he was working in the capital of Ukraine in the difficult context of uncertainty in the future, permanent changes, and contradictions in definitions. “ZIRKA” (STAR) does not provide answers but raises questions, the most important of which are “What kind of visual form accompanies a short word?” and “What form may such really important processes of the mental and territorial delimitation of Ukraine acquire from the Soviet past and the Russian present?” It seems that the whole country was in a state of total amnesia, and now it gradually begins to remember something painful and therefore so desirable for oblivion. But the issue will not go away if you just close your eyes tight or dismantle a mural – an issue without reflection is being displaced into the depths of the subconscious and will certainly remind of itself, though it is unknown when and in what form it will happen.

It is clear that the heraldic language, which was used so actively by the authoritarian Soviet regime, has imprinted into the consciousness of several generations of Ukrainians. All the fears connected with the terror are justified. The present is being designed and interpreted in the same way as the past, and the process of building a new state, which has to be very consistent and balanced, is risking to become a subject of manipulation of pro-governmental and biased structures once again. Today the form is being thrown on from above by the Soviet custom. You don’t like it? – But it is protected by law.

Bernhard makes his “SON” (DREAM) on the waves of the Dnieper river, as if emphasizing a quiet oblivion of the citizens of the whole country – can it be true that 65 years of its life were something like an infusion, a ghost? Indeed, waking up from a splash of cold water in the face it is difficult to find the guide right away, to stand up straight, to speak up clearly and judiciously, to make a decision and to move on. However, being afraid of sleeping again is as absurd as “Nightmare on Elm Street”. Every dream is true, as long as it lasts.

Bernhard decides to show the work “MAMA IKEA NATO” in the urban landscape, piercing the capital with an inscription of a mantra like set of words on a small sheet of paper. One of the main reasons for the creation of the NATO in 1949 was to protect the West from the influence of the USSR. However, nowadays this organization’s maternal shelter is so desirable for ex-Soviet countries. As for the word “IKEA” (this company doesn’t have an official representation in Ukraine), the author pointed out ironically in his artist talk , “I buy low-cost utility furniture for myself, and set up an apartment, so do my friends and my neighbours – IKEA is building socialism in very deed!” Instead, Soviet socialism, which was significantly different from the Swedish one, was characterized with the crisis of household of the average citizen. Among other things, the state satisfied the aesthetic needs of its citizens on the way to work and back home, at the subway stations, which were decorated with mosaics created by the best artists of that time. And even despite the current satiety with visual images, everyone can feel reverence in front of the images of the personification of a “bright future” at these stations: manly workers, hard working female collective farmers, brave soldiers, conscientious students.

Modern Ukrainian pro-governmental structures have undertaken a fight against all the manifestations of aesthetics of left ideology, completely identifying it with the project of the Soviet state. And in the same way as the words “MAMA IKEA NATO” are semantically different, today’s Ukraine must distinguish the semantic content of the concepts of “work of art”, “socialism”, and “bureaucratic apparatus”.

Dana Brezhnieva, Chief Curator, Mala Gallery,
Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kiev, Ukraine